The Official Author's Hangout 2016 April Fool's Day Contest Support Thread

[sr71plt]

That's a great score.

Maybe it's your year, Leo.

Not a chance if the voting cutoff was midnight rather than the close of the last sweep , but it's already selling in the marketplace, so it will earn its keep.

Just took another zap vote. Guess someone doesn't realize it all stopped at midnight Eastern U.S. time.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Not a chance if the voting cutoff was midnight rather than the close of the last sweep , but it's already selling in the marketplace, so it will earn its keep.

Just took another zap vote. Guess someone doesn't realize it all stopped at midnight Eastern U.S. time.

I know you general don't care squat for what anyone thinks, and just saying this will probably earn me some venom, but I thought it was really well done. The subject matter really worked with your style.

It would not be an undeserving winner.

 

[sr71plt]

I know you general don't care squat for what anyone thinks, and just saying this will probably earn me some venom, but I thought it was really well done. The subject matter really worked with your style.

It would not be an undeserving winner.

Thanks. You did leave a very nice comment on it a few days ago.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Thanks. You did leave a very nice comment on it a few days ago.

I call 'em like I see 'em. My opinion is mine alone, and worth as little as any other, but I give it honestly, and with as little bias as I can manage.

 

[TxRad]

Congratulations to the 2016 April Fool's Day Contest Winners!
Manu and I would like to thank all the authors who submitted during this special contest! We've tallied the reader's votes, and are happy to announce the winners of our 2016 Valenetine's Day Story Contest.

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Avril's Fool, a CFNM story by BuckyDuckman

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
All Fools' Day Foolery by sr71plt

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
The Cult by Tx Tall Tales


Nice Job Pilot.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

There ya go.

Congrats to all the winners.

 

[sheablue]

Congrats to the winners!

My silly little celebrity story, that I didn't even plan to write, did really well, by my standards. Thanks to everyone for reading and voting, on all of the stories.

 

[xelliebabex]

Congrats to all the winners!

There were a lot of fun stories in this one

 

[GoldenMaia]

Congratulations winners!

Lets go Nude Day!

 

[oggbashan]

Congratulations to the winners!



Of my four, one reached the massive height of 4.21 after the final sweep. The three others didn't reach as high as 4.00

Last Place (tm) Contest anyone?

 

[TxRad]

Congratulations to the winners!



Of my four, one reached the massive height of 4.21 after the final sweep. The three others didn't reach as high as 4.00

Last Place (tm) Contest anyone?

I tied your 4.2. It was about what i expected out of the story. A fun little romp without much of a point. If i had taken it on out another 10 or 12 word pages it would have gotten better ratings but then again, the story was finished where i ended it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Wow, congratulations Pilot!

 

[MSTarot]

Congrats to the winners! Great job.

 

[IvyWillcox]

Congrats to all the winners, nice job.

 

[SarahsHooters]

My silly little celebrity story, that I didn't even plan to write, did really well, by my standards. Thanks to everyone for reading and voting, on all of the stories.

I absolutely loved your story. Great job. And not just because I have a huge crush on the male protagonist.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed my story and congratulations to sr71plt and TxTallTales!

 

[legerdemer]

Congratulations to all the winners, and to all others who entered the contest.

 

[BradBigBrain]

Congratulations to the 2016 April Fool's Day Contest Winners!
Manu and I would like to thank all the authors who submitted during this special contest! We've tallied the reader's votes, and are happy to announce the winners of our 2016 Valenetine's Day Story Contest.

First Place ($150 Cash Prize Winner):
Avril's Fool, a CFNM story by BuckyDuckman

Second Place ($100 Cash Prize Winner):
All Fools' Day Foolery by sr71plt

Third Place ($75 Cash Prize Winner):
The Cult by Tx Tall Tales


Nice Job Pilot.

Congratulations to the winners! This is my first contest and I was happy to have finished in the top 100.

My final tally was 4.38.

 

[oggbashan]

Congratulations to the winners! This is my first contest and I was happy to have finished in the top 100.

My final tally was 4.38.

That's higher than all four of mine. Congratulations!

 

[oggbashan]

I got a mind blowing 19 votes left, not even close to 4. Already dancing around with my dunce's hat.

Congratulations to the winners. Well deserved.

But you entered. Thank you.

 

[sheablue]

I absolutely loved your story. Great job. And not just because I have a huge crush on the male protagonist.

Thanks! I knew I wasn't the only one.

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

Great job to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners!

 

[sr71plt]

Thanks for the congratulations on the placing of “All Fools Day Foolery,” and cheers to all who played in the game. I try not to read any of the competition pieces, but I'm sure there were many good stories, including those of the others who placed. I think the contests do bring out some above-the-norm creative writing.

As noted earlier, for my story it all depended on the sweeps (and, as I note during nearly every contest, it’s good not to obsess over the scoring until the final sweep is done). This one was 4.90 when it achieved 10 votes and the rating was first publicly revealed. Within hours (with three slams within succession in minutes) it went down to 4.54. It stayed around there for a few days and then was taken down to 4.49 (below hot) until the final sweep that took off 11 votes and zipped it up to 4.87, which, I presume, was where the contest results snapshot was taken. Right before midnight Eastern U.S. time last night, two zaps in succession brought it down to, first, 4.85 and then 4.83--the voters thinking, I'm sure, that the results hadn't been tallied yet and, I'm equally sure, being cast by folks with an oar in the contest and/or a grudge against me. After my midnight, another zap took it down to 4.79. That vote was swept today, and the story is now at 4.84 (for now). In all, I saw 15 votes on about 80 votes in total swept. No comments have been deleted from the story. Most of the voting activity happened right after the first rating publicly posted (the activity nosediving the rating), any time in the interim when a vote took the story above the 4.50 threshold, and in the final hour of the contest voting (although the contest apparently cleverly closed out before then), which also took the score down.

So, that’s a snapshot on both what can happen in the contest voting here (just about the same with my Valentine’s Day contest entry, which was kept down around 4.30 until the final sweep took it up to 4.79. It has remained near there ever since) and how important the sweeps are/have to be to counteract that voting.

If anyone who hasn’t read the story is interested, it’s a Gay Male murder mystery set in New Orleans with a protagonist who, although a vice homicide detective, engages in the vice himself, and scenes with highly graphic/kinky gay male sex. So, hardly to a winning formula here, I wouldn’t think. “Murder” isn’t even permitted here as a tag, and I’d bet that any other GM story that placed in a contest here was a romance (and a saccharine one, at that). The inspirations for it besides the April 1st theme, which this one approached from a couple of directions, was the questioned death of Supreme Court Justice Scalia (not using him as a character, of course) and fan requests to continue the off-beat, flawed Kavanagh character from an earlier story (“Inevitable Case,” which has also had a good run here and in the marketplace—a third mystery, “Snitches,” is in the works).

I won’t claim the winnings for this in keeping with my posts over the years of decrying connecting money with an easily manipulated “contest” like this. In two days in the marketplace (my current avatar here is the marketplace e-book cover, and the e-book is announced up above in the AH thread for members’ published books), it’s already made more than the first-place money in the contest and I’m not revealing a true name to get a check, so it’s not a big sacrifice on my part.

What I propose, if Laurel agrees to it, is to award half of the prize money ($50) to go to the two lowest rated stories ($25 each) by contest author declaration of their end-of-contest rating in the contest, while still meeting the 25-vote minimum vote number. This would be to encourage “plugging away” at it and sticking with the contests. If there are more than two with the same “lowest rating” figure, determination would go to the story(ies) with the most votes. If this doesn’t fly with Literotica, oh well, I was willing to do it—and it only uses half of what I could pull. So, let’s see some specific bids on lowest rating.

Thanks to all who read and show their appreciation for "not exactly the norm" stories I post to Literotica (and I’ll note that stories I submit to the contests are as likely to be heterosexual as GM. I wish that the master contest list provided the genre of the story). I won’t be eligible to win in contests for a while, but don’t be surprised to see I still am submitting stories to them. I don’t consider them legitimate contests and I think they bring out the worst in authors and fans/detractors here, but they have a lot of other benefits, and I don’t submit to them either for a win or for money. I certainly didn't expect this placing--nor did I do any gaming or writing to formula to place. So maybe those who do should just have more faith in the strength of their stories and fan bases.

 

[Laurel]

What I propose, if Laurel agrees to it, is to award half of the prize money ($50) to go to the two lowest rated stories ($25 each) by contest author declaration of their end-of-contest rating in the contest, while still meeting the 25-vote minimum vote number. This would be to encourage “plugging away” at it and sticking with the contests. If there are more than two with the same “lowest rating” figure, determination would go to the story(ies) with the most votes. If this doesn’t fly with Literotica, oh well, I was willing to do it—and it only uses half of what I could pull. So, let’s see some specific bids on lowest rating..

I'm fine with this.

 

[oggbashan]

...
What I propose, if Laurel agrees to it, is to award half of the prize money ($50) to go to the two lowest rated stories ($25 each) by contest author declaration of their end-of-contest rating in the contest, while still meeting the 25-vote minimum vote number. This would be to encourage “plugging away” at it and sticking with the contests. If there are more than two with the same “lowest rating” figure, determination would go to the story(ies) with the most votes. If this doesn’t fly with Literotica, oh well, I was willing to do it—and it only uses half of what I could pull. So, let’s see some specific bids on lowest rating.
...

I'm fine with this.

Thank you for the offer. While my lowest is BTB Chapel, I'm happy with continuing with the contests anyway, so I don't need encouragement.

For the record, my scores as at now are:

BTB Chapel (Loving Wives)

Rating 3.38 Votes 366 Views 23740

Certainties (Humor & Satire)

Rating 3.98 Votes 104 Views 9507

Evasion (Fetish)

Rating 4.21 Votes 61 Views 5758

Femdom Makeover (Mind Control)

Rating 3.87 Votes 119 Views 18986

PS. Drops in ratings at specific times.

Over the years I have noticed several patterns:

1. When the rating becomes visible at 10 votes, the next few votes tend to drop the score, BUT often a story will reach 10 votes with a perfect 5.00. I suspect the next few readers think 'It's good, but NOT that good' and vote a 4.

2. Whenever the winners of a themed contest are announced, the ratings of the top three stories, the 'winners', will drop in the next few hours. Again, I think it could be readers who think 'I don't agree this story was THE best'.

Those patterns are a reasonable reaction and don't require conspiracy theories to explain them.

But, again, discussing your current rating on the Authors' Hangout during a contest does seem to produce low votes immediately afterwards. From whom? That is the question.